Like so many things, it is a symptom of something deeper. And, as donttread has pointed out, it has some connection to drug prohibition. In Switzerland, where they have heroin-assisted treatment clinics, overdose deaths are much lower than in other countries: Mortality in heroin-assisted treatment in Switzerland 1994-2000.

It is LONG past due that we start treating drug addiction as MEDICAL problem, not a criminal one.

Portugol has been a success story for decriminalization for almost 2 decades

Opioids Are Now Responsible for 1 in 5 Deaths Among Young Adults. In 2016, one in 65 deaths in the United States involved opioids — and among younger adults, that number skyrocketed to one in five, according to a new study. Data has shown for years that deaths involving both prescribed and illicit opioids are rising sharply. They’ve nearly doubled since 2009, and have infiltrated all genders, demographics and geographic areas, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data. The new study, published Friday in the journal JAMA Network Open, puts some of those numbers into new perspective.

Remember - opiods are an inanimate objects that don;t jump into people's noses, lungs or veins, it's not the drugs... It's the people who misuse them that have the problem.

A good percentage of the people that have died have been prescribed opioids to control pain as the result of injury. Unfortunately, big pharma hid its near immediate addictiveness. These people were prescribed this stuff and became hooked. I have seen it. I have attended funerals of such victims.

Any time you give a man something he doesn't earn, you cheapen him. Our kids earn what they get, and that includes respect.-- Woody Hayes​

Sorry but I have to smirk when people use what other countries have done as a comparison to what we should do here.

Don't tell me that you believe the bull$#@! about how it couldn't work here because we're bigger? We also have more resources and if you like we could break the programs up at the state level.
Besides our way has completely failed. I haven't drank or used illicit drugs in over 30 years but I could have pot tonight and harder drugs within days and I don't even travel in those circles anymore.
The fallacy of the pro-prohibition argument , the war on drugs argument , is starting from the false position that any of it has worked at all. It hasn't. So you reject options that have worked elsewhere in favor of proven failure here. Think about it.

A good percentage of the people that have died have been prescribed opioids to control pain as the result of injury. Unfortunately, big pharma hid its near immediate addictiveness. These people were prescribed this stuff and became hooked. I have seen it. I have attended funerals of such victims.

Clearly prescription opiates should be used only short term. That makes sense and works unless you were the one with the serious chronic pain they want to throw advil at.
As the song says "We need a new drug" but such a drug would diminsh profits for big pharma, jails, prisons , rehabs, lawyers, undertakers, counselors . The free market has no solution here